We might be in the midst of another extreme heatwave this summer, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about Christmas. If the dog days of summer mean anything to online retailers, this time of year should be about getting ready for the peak Q4 Holiday sales season.
Getting ready for peak means having all of your marketing strategies lined up and ready to go. For the typical online marketplace seller, this might mean ensuring your listings are fully optimised in terms of eBay listing best practices. For more sophisticated multi-channel online retail businesses, a priority could be ensuring their MarTech stack is fully aligned to manage the opportunity in the most efficient manner possible.
Learn More: On a recent Frooition Podcast, Shaun O’Brien from Direct Plants spoke about how he was confident about scaling up his business to manage periods of peak sales without adding headcount. He could do this because he had stress-tested his MarTech stack (including Frooition, Linnworks, and BigCommerce) and was 100% confident the systems wouldn’t let him down.
Why Are We Talking About Christmas Now?
Christmas 2022 will be far from a return to the new normal we all hoped for in 2020 and 2021. In many ways, it will be more challenging for online retailers.
According to a recent report in Internet Retailing, consumers in the UK and US are planning on dramatically reducing their festive spending this year.
The report suggests that with ongoing concerns about the cost-of-living crisis, rising energy costs, and recession, UK consumers may cut the average spend on gifts in half this season to less than £500. Consumers are also starting their Christmas shopping early, with 30% of consumers having already started.
Black Friday
As always, Black Friday will be a big deal this year. 75% of shoppers have suggested they would do most of their shopping on that date. So if you want to hit peak sales this Christmas season, you must have all your systems fired up and ready to go long before November 25th.
Important: You don’t want to be testing new technology or marketing strategies during the Black Friday weekend. If something isn’t fully optimised or, even worse, doesn’t work, you can kiss the best of the season goodbye. Use the “Dog days of Summer” to plan, deploy, test, and optimise your strategies.
Testing Times: Halloween
While many retailers will be worried about the ongoing uncertainty in the market, now is not the time to hide behind the sofa and hope everything will be OK.
This year’s most successful retailers will be those who invest in their business and optimise their strategy to deliver the right products to the right people at the right time.
Ideally, retailers will have their Christmas strategies in place before Halloween.
The week’s leading up to October 31st are perfect to stress-test any new technologies and strategies. If you want to be 100% sure everything is ready to help you achieve your goals on Black Friday and beyond, you need to make your moves now.
Learn More
To learn more about how the online retail experts at Frooition can help you prepare for Christmas and the Holidays, schedule a 15-minute discovery call today.
